Housing Construction Up 1.5%
Housing construction rebounded in September as a sharp rise in apartment construction offset a drop in single-family home building, the government said today.
The Commerce Department said new homes and apartments were built at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.45 million units last month, up 1.5% from August, when housing starts fell a sharp 3.1%.
Single-family housing, in a slump for most of this year, took another 2.3% dip.
Analysts had been expecting a modest recovery in housing starts for last month because fixed-rate mortgages retreated a bit after rising steadily from late March through mid-August, when they peaked for the year so far at 10.71%.
Last week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, rates averaged 10.33%, the lowest since early May.
Building permits, a good indicator of future housing activity, fell 4.4% in September.
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